Packet communications are becoming the prevalent form of exchanging voice information between communication devices. In particular, wireless communication devices are now capable of exchanging voice information using wireless packet communications. Many of these wireless communication devices are capable of exchanging wireless packet communications over multiple different wireless communication networks. This ability to switch wireless communication networks adds complexity to the provision of packet voice services to wireless communication devices. As a remedy, voice communication servers have been deployed to manage packet voice services over multiple different wireless networks for a select set of the wireless communication devices.
When a packet voice service is configured for one of these select wireless communication devices, a voice server trigger is loaded into that wireless communication device's registration profile. When the wireless communication device registers with its wireless communication network, the trigger directs the wireless communication network to use a voice communication server for voice communications. In effect, the wireless communication network now becomes a simple transport path between the wireless communication device and the voice communication server for voice communications. Although the voice communication server manages packet voice services over multiple networks for the select wireless communication device, the addition of the voice communication server also creates an ancillary overhead and messaging load on the wireless communication network.
Overview
Embodiments disclosed herein provide systems and methods for selective use of a packet voice trigger in a wireless access network, wherein the wireless access network comprises one of a plurality of different wireless access networks and wherein a packet voice server interoperates with the plurality of different wireless access networks. In a particular embodiment, a method provides receiving a call request for a call from a wireless communication device that is capable of exchanging packet voice communications over the different access networks. The method further provides determining a geographic location of the wireless communication device and processing an identifier for the wireless communication device to retrieve a device profile for the wireless communication device. If the device profile indicates that the wireless communication device should use a trigger for packet voice communications to be serviced through the packet voice server, then the method provides determining whether the trigger should be disarmed based on a quantity of the plurality of different access networks available to the wireless communication device at the geographic location of the wireless communication device. If the trigger is armed, the method provides transferring the call request for delivery to the packet voice server to set up the call. If the trigger is disarmed, the method provides processing the call request in the wireless access network to set up the call.